UK News and Discussions

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wjfox
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Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finances inquiry
Sun 11 Jun 2023 14.37 BST

Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested by police investigating allegations of financial misconduct by the Scottish National party.

Sturgeon, who quit as first minister and SNP leader in early April, is the third person to be arrested as part of Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland investigation into allegations that more than £600,000 in donations for an independence campaign was misspent by the party.

Her husband, Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP, was arrested at their home in Uddingston near Glasgow on 5 April, and interviewed under caution for nearly 12 hours before being released without charge.

The police searched their home and back garden, and also searched the SNP’s headquarters under warrant, taking out boxes of documents and computers.

Colin Beattie MSP, then the party’s treasurer, was arrested and questioned as part of the same inquiry on 18 April and also released later without charge, pending further investigation.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... es-inquiry
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"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

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Vodafone and Three agree UK merger to create biggest mobile player worth £15bn
Wednesday 14 June 2023 12:46

A deal that would create the country's biggest mobile phone operator has been struck by Vodafone and the owner of Three UK, CK Hutchison.

The new combined group, which will comprise only their respective UK operations, will be majority-owned by Vodafone with 51% of the equity.

The merger, if approved by regulators, will create a group with a combined 27 million mobile customers.

It would mean that BT-owned EE would lose its number one position in the market by customer numbers. The merger would also see the combined group overtake O2.

But the Competition and Markets Authority is likely to be concerned that the proposal will lead to weaker competition.
https://news.sky.com/story/vodafone-and ... n-12899033
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Re: UK News and Discussions

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The UK is facing a mortgage catastrophe. For perspective for our American friends rather than having a fixed 30 year mortgage, people in the UK will typically take out a fixed mortgage for usually 2 or 5 years with a guaranteed interest rate and then shop around at the end for a new mortgage with a different interest rate. The interest rate will typically be lower on these compared with the US style fixes but you have interest rate risk where you could come off your mortgage to a substantially higher interest rate.

Given this you begin to see the issue. Many people have current mortgage deals from when interest rates where historically low and people were fixing interest rates typically between 1-2%. Well with inflation in the UK and the central bank raising interest rates to try and dampen down inflation mortgage interest rates are now at 6%. This hasn't really impacted the wider economy yet as the rate rises have happened very quickly and very recently while most people have been locked into their lower fixed rate overtime though people are coming going to come off these rates and be hit with much higher mortgage costs.

The situation is worse than is what it was previously in the 80s when interest rates where higher than they are now for 2 reasons.

1. The average house in the UK currently costs around nine-times average earnings, based on data as at 30 November 2022. The last time house prices were this expensive relative to average earnings was in the year 1876, nearly 150 years ago. https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/indi ... in-the-uk/

2. Mortgage interest relief at source which allowed borrowers tax relief for interest payments on their mortgage no longer exists

To put this in simple terms to understand the impact of the crisis on people who own an average priced property going from a 2% interest rate to a 6% interest rate means an increase in repayments of thousands of pounds extra a year while having to deal with soaring prices for other goods such as food. The situation isn't better for renters either as their landlords will either pass on the higher interest rate in the form of increased rent charges or if the tenant can't pay that will look to sell the property which will decrease the supply of rental properties and lead to higher rent payments on the remaining stock as a consequence.

I'll be OK as I live up north where house prices are cheaper and I didn't borrow the maximum I could afford by quite a lot in case rates went up which they have now done. For people living down South where house prices are much higher its a time bomb waiting to go off and if the Tories don't do something significant to help not only will they lose the next election but they will get obliterated as many of the people hurting live in traditional conservative seats in the South.
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^ Great explanation, lechwall.

Indeed, back in the 1980s, you could buy a home for only 4x the average salary. That's now risen to 9+ times. Which makes these current interest rate rises a looming catastrophe for many, on top of massive food and other price rises generally.

That's without even getting into our collapsing public services.

I can't recall a bleaker outlook for the UK in my lifetime than right now.
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Re: UK News and Discussions

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wjfox wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2023 5:13 pm ^ Great explanation, lechwall.

Indeed, back in the 1980s, you could buy a home for only 4x the average salary. That's now risen to 9+ times. Which makes these current interest rate rises a looming catastrophe for many, on top of massive food and other price rises generally.

That's without even getting into our collapsing public services.

I can't recall a bleaker outlook for the UK in my lifetime than right now.
Thanks, They are now talking about letting people pay interest only payments and then switching back to their original deal within 6 months however this will affect peoples ability to borrow in future meaning people will be loathe to do it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65990833
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Labour Takes 25-Point Lead Over Tories


https://politicalwire.com/2023/06/24/la ... er-tories/

"SNIP........

A new Times/YouGov poll finds the UK’s Labour party is extending its lead over the ruling Conservatives, 47% to 22%, with the Liberal Democrats at 11% and the Greens at 8%.
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